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actuality

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

From actual +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

Noun

actuality (countable and uncountable, plural actualities)

  1. The state of existing; existence.
  2. An instance or quality of being actual or factual; fact.
    • 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
      "It seems as though I have lived this life always. The world of books and bookish folk is very vague, more like a dream memory than an actuality. I surely have hunted and forayed and fought all the days of my life. And you, too, seem a part of it. You are -- " I was on the verge of saying, "my woman, my mate," but glibly changed it to -- "standing the hardship well."
  3. (television) Live reporting on current affairs.
    • 1964, European Broadcasting Union, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 83, page 22:
      A cabled despatch is better than nothing, but a voicecast of tolerable quality is preferable, and in certain types of story a voicecast with live or recorded actuality is best of all. Correspondents all have portable tape recorders.
    • 2005, Alan R. Stephenson, David E. Reese, Mary E. Beadle, Broadcast Announcing Worktext, page 164:
      This is a news report from the scene of the event. When a voicer and an actuality are combined into one complete story, it's known as a wrap.
  4. (historical, film) A short early motion picture.
    • 1999, “The Variety Stage collection”, in Selected Materials from the Library of Congress‎:
      By 1903, the actuality film had reached its peak; in 1903, the Edison and Biograph companies, combined, registered three hundred fifty one actuality films for copyright protection. By 1908 that number had dropped to two.

Derived terms

Translations

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